World's first dengue vaccine Dengvaxia to be rolled out in Guatemala
The world’s first dengue vaccine Dengvaxia developed by French pharma Sanofi Pasteur will be rolled out in Guatemala in the next few days.
Dengvaxia was previously approved for sale in Philippines, Brazil, Mexico and El Salvdor.
The dengue vaccine was unveiled recently by Sanofi Pasteur in a recent news conference in Guatemala City.
Dengvaxia is indicated for people in the age group of 9-45 years living in endemic zones. It is a three-dose vaccine and is proved effective against the four types of dengue.
Sanofi Pasteur took around 20 years for the development of this dengue vaccine which became commercially available from last year.
Vaccine (Photo courtesy of bluebay and Freedigitalphotos.net)
As per World Health Organization (WHO)’s Pan American Health Organization, 114,000 dengue cases were reported in Guatemala since 2005 resulting in 132 deaths.
Dengue is a mosquito borne viral infection that has killed many people in recent years. Dengue infection is accompanied by fever, pain and it can be fatal too.
Dengue cases have greatly increased from mid 1990s with reports of around 3.2 million cases last year according to WHO stats. The health organization also revealed that 9000 people died in 2013 due to dengue, a majority of them living in poorer countries.
WHO estimates that 100 million people are infected with dengue globally and a quarter of them are in need of the treatment.
Most dengue fever cases have been seen in countries in Asia followed by Latin America and Africa regions.
In other news relating to dengue, an Indian company Sun Pharma announced collaboration with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) on an affordable dengue vaccine to be released worldwide.
DailyHealthNeeds.com had written a detailed article on dengue virus infection which you can read to know about its symptoms and treatment.